7

Lost in thought I walked to my next class, which was transfiguration with McGonagall. This class would only be attended by Hufflepuff students, no Ravenclaws.

As I walked into the classroom I could see a cat sitting on the teachers desk. I knew that that cat was McGonagall in her animagus form, something I wanted to learn as well in the future.

Most of the students with some exceptions didn't know that the teacher was already present, so they happily chattered with each other.

Exactly at class-begin McGonagall jumped from the desk and transformed back to her human form. Effectively silencing all chitchats. The students unfamiliar with the concept of animagus were gobsmacked.

"Now that I have your attention I need to inform you about some formalities." she proceeded to tell us about what transfiguration was, how to use it and the dangers lack of experience or carelessness brings.

Like the charms class transfiguration had a practical part as well, which consisted of transfigurating a match into a needle. McGonagall showed us how it was done and let us try afterwards. Unlike my unexpected difficulties with charms, I was a natural at transfiguration. Turning the match into a crude needle on the first try and into a beautiful one on my second.

"Magnificent Mr. Foster, 10 points to Huffelpuff" she praised me.

I spent the rest of the class refining my work. No one else managed to produce a needle that satisfied McGonagall's high standarts.

After transfiguration we had a free period until Lunch, which I spent pondering about my inability when it came to charms, and a double period of potions in the afternoon.

Luckily I read the potions book, "Magical Drafts and Potions", on the train ride otherwise I would have been screwed, because as it turned out, I am awful at potions. Maybe not as bad as Seamus Finnigan who managed to explode his cauldron in the movie, but still not good.

Afterwards I wanted to walk directly to the Room of Requirement to test a few of my hypothesis', but I was stopped by Hannah and Susan who asked me for some help with the transfiguration homework.

"I am sorry I can't right now. How about we meet up in the library in two hours, I should be done by then." I informed them. They gladly accepted my offer and we parted ways thereafter.

Arriving at the Room of Requirements I conjured a room with a single desk and a feather on top nothing more and nothing less.

"wing-GAR-dee-um leh-vee-OH-sa" I pronounced perfectly while doing the right wand movements.

The feather didn't move even one tiny bit.

"I don't get it what am I doing wrong. I could already move things telepathically, when I was in elementary school, so why is it not working now, in a magic school, with a magic wand?"

To confirm this I reached out for the feather with my empty hand and released some magic.

The feather easily began to levitate above the desk.

"Maybe, just maybe" I murmured, looking down at my wand.

Putting it back in my pocked and floating the feather back down onto the desk, I streched my hand out again, but this time instead of consciously using magic I said the incantation and did the wand movement with my finger.

At that moment I knew why it didn't work.

It was my magic.

My magic did not move.

And to ultimately confirm that I was not the problem I took my wand back out.

Pointing it at the desk and at the feather that had fallen back down I consciously used magic, the same amount I had used on my prior attempt.

I could feel it rushing through the wand.

A few moments later not only the feather but also the desk began levitating.

Astonished at the results I thought 'so that's why wands are indispensable to a wizard.'

But when I tried to let the desk back down and keep the feather afloat it wouldn't let me seperate them.

"Huh"

'So a stronger effect for less control.'

'Well, you could probably do it if you were more familiar with the spell and your wand.'

Letting them back down I put my wand away and instead realeased enough magic to levitate both the feather and the desk.

I was unproblematically able to move them independently.

After a few more experiments I came to the conclusion:

Because I learned how to cast magic through knowlegde, intent and emotions. I was casting spells through magic, instead of the normal wizard casting magic through spells. Those three weren't some factors that helped me in casting, no they were the factors on which I built my magical system.

Basically I learned raw magic instead of spellcasting. So all the incantations and wand movements didn't resonate with my magic. They wouldn't work unless I forgot and relearned everything I had until now. There was no way I would do that and give up all my hard work, for a less versatile and creative way of casting, but that also meant that the classes and spells thaught were almost useless to me.

The solution that I came up with was that I would observe the effects of the spells instead of the wand movement and incantation in class, and afterwards replicate the same spell in the Room of Requirement. At first through sheer force and imagination, which was possible thanks to my larger than normal magic capacity, before refining its effects down to a spell befitting a first year student, because if the levitation spell with my wand was that strong from the start then I don't want to know what would happen if I try a combat spell for the first time in class without the right magic quantity. And after all that I should be able to just say the spell-incantation as a cover-up.

My way of doing magic came with its own pros and cons. You would almost have no restrictions when it comes to magic, but it would be harder to learn and it would require a lot more magic to cast anything.

On top of me being the only one I know, who did it that way, which means no helpful books or notes, because why would you experiment with something so fundamental like spellcasting, when you have a perfectly fine system already in place.

You would have to be a muggle, or a wizard ignorant of magic, and have such a high affinity that you could feel the magic around you, without knowing what it was, to be able to learn my way of casting. Alternatively you could also be reincarnated and know that magic exists, but not use it in the form of spells, like I did.

All of this also means that my wand is merely an external focus for my magic. It should also be different from wandless magic, because wandless magic is still casting the same spell, but without a wand.

Looking at the clock and seeing that two hours had already passed I made my way back down to the library where I met up with Hannah and Susan.

We finished our homework together and I gave them some pointers on how to better visualize the process of transfiguration. "If you ever need help with anything else feel free to come to me." I said as those two were leaving the library to do whatever they had planned to do for the evening.

After they were gone I searched for a specific book, which I luckily found after a few minutes, "The story behind He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's defeat". It was a book about the events on that hystorical night, which answered a few of my questions that I had after seeing the Potters. As it turns out their grandparents sacrificed themselves in order to defeat Snake-Boy. Unfortunately the book didn't go into detail, the only thing it did proof was that Harry got hit by the killing curse and that Tommy-Boy was never seen again. What I found weird was that according to the book Holly suffered a two month long magical coma and that this information was presented as a minor side note.

With more questions than answers I tried to find another, better explaining, book but there were none. So I postponed my questions until I meet the Potters or someone else who could know more.

Without anything else to do in the library I made my way back to my dormroom where I would start to memorizing the charms book, "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1". Unlucky for me the homework still had to be in the normal way of casting.

In the evening I finished the entire book, did some physical training, emptied the rest of my magic and went to bed.

The next day I started the same way; wake up, go to the Room of Requirements and do some physicall training. But beacuse today's first lesson was a free period I began learning some other spells.

The second class was boring as hell. Quirrell had to have some kind of brain damage from Voldemorts soul, because he took 30 minutes to merely introduce himself and explain what defence against the dark arts is. He was so incompetent that it was better to teach myself than listen to his unending stuttering.

Afterwards came another free period, which I spent continuing reading the defence against the dark arts book, "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection", which I had started in his class. After dinner came history of magic, taught by Cuthbert Binns, a ghost. This class was purely theoretic, with no possibilty of ever using magic. As you might have guessed another mind-numbing period. Worst of all it was a double period. I decided to completely shut out the teacher and instead continue with my defence against the dark arts book, which I finished at the end of class. I would learn history of magic on my own as well sometime in the future.

In the afternoon I went back to the room of requirement, to train some more.

As I had quickly ran out of magic, I instead used my time to figure out the limits of the room of requirement.

It was impossible to conjure food or magical ingredients, it was also not possible to create a second library, even though books did appear, they were blank once you opened them. It was also impossible to summon anything alive.

Back in my room I started with the herbology book, "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi", wich I could not finish before going to bed.

The next day nothing major happened before Lunch. I attended some classes and managed to finish the book just before my first herbology lesson, which was a jointly subject between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

I was one of the last ones to enter the greenhouse, where we would have our lesson. Thus I had not the privilege of choosing my herbology partner. Hannah and Susan formed a team on their own. I could see Harry joking around with Ron.

Justin was waving at me and pointed to the empty seat next to him, but I saw something more interesting at the back of the room.

There sat a lonely Hermoine Granger all by herself.

Waving back at Justin with a sorry expression I made my way to the back, where Hermoine was absorbed in the herbology book.

"Do you mind having me as your partner?" I said startling her.

"Lucas! Of course not, I saved you a spot." she replied excitedly and with some relief, if I am not mistaken. "How are you?" she continued.

"I am fine, how about ..." I was interrupted by Pomona Sprout, our teacher, fiercely kicking open the wooden door, while holding a large pot with both hands.

"Good afternoon kids, welcome to herbology." she said while placing the pot on the table. "Who can tell me what this beauty is?" Hermione instantly raised her hand begging to be picked.

Ms. Sprout looked at her and said "Yes I heard we have a very enthusiastic young witch among us. Can you tell me what it is?" When the teacher finished speaking I could feel a wave of annoynace coming from the Gryffindors. 'I guess she already tried to "encourage" her peers to study more.'

"It's a young Devil's Snare." Hermoine replied. Once she got the confirmation that she was right, I could feel an overwhelming amount of joy radiating from her.

As Ms. Sprout explaned what a Devil's Snare was. I tried to ask Hermione again how she was doing, but she interrupted me, without any bad intentions, saying you shouldn't talk during a lesson. 'I kinda see why the other Gryffindors are so annoyed at her, but hey easier to manipulate someone who is isolated than someone who is in a group'

After a few more questions by our teacher, which Hermione was as eager to answer as the first one. Ms. Sprout explained to us that before we would work with plants we would learn how to handle them. "... and that is why I will teach you some spells first. Namely the fire-starting spell, the light spell and the severing spell. Today we will start with Incendio the fire making spell. The others will follow in the next lessons. If everyone could take out a dried piece of wood from under the table. The incantation is Incendio and the wand movement is as followed."

As she showed us how to cast the spell a small flame started to burn the wood in front of her. Afterwards everone got to try. I just stood awkwardly to the side, because I did not want to burn the whole table to a crisp or someone for that matter, if I were to use my wand for the spell and wandlessly casting a spell on my first time was not something I wanted anyone to know I was capable of.

So I just observed Hermoine casting the spell perfectly. After starting a small fire she turned to me and told me I should try next. Not knowing how to explain my condition I instead just replicated her incantation and movement. As expected nothing happened. "Try again." she said not finding any flaws in my spellcasting.

Still nothing

"I don't get it, you did everything right. Why isn't it working?" Hermoine asked herself confused.

*BOOM*

Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at a Gryffindor student with missing eyebrows, singed hair and a dirty face.

"Mr. Finnigan, are you alright?" asked Ms. Sprout.

"I am fine Professor, not my first explosion." replied Seamus Finnigan calmly.

Ms. Sprout continued "Nevertheless you should get checked in the infirmary." Looking at the clock she said "And as it is already close to the end of the lesson, why don't we end it here? I will check your fire-starter spells the next time. Finnigan I will accompany you to the infirmary."

With the situation resolved Hermoine switched her attention back onto my problem "Lucas why isn't it working?"

"I don't know" I lied as I was collecting my things.

"Lucas is everything alright with you? Are you sick?" she pressed on with concern clearly visible on her face.

"I am fine, don't worry" I gave her a reassuring smile forcing her focus away from my well-being and instead onto the magic not working.

Finally having all of my belongings collected I greeted Hannah and Susan on my way out. As I was leaving through the door, I could still hear Hermoine faintly mumbling to herself.

Finding myself back in the room of requirements, where I would spent the rest of the afternoon mastering the three herbology spells I needed in the near future.